Chapter 5: Memory 4 | Like A Habit
GIA'S POV:
"Eonnie!
Eonnie!!...
EONNIE!!!!!..."
I jerked right out of bed, startled by the intense high pitch of my roommate. It's truly a miracle to have such a loud voice coming from a small figure like hers. When Sorim first introduced Jiwon to me as my roommate, I only saw a sweet and rather reserved girl. She seemed like a bookworm who would listen to relaxing instrumental music before bed every night. However, she proved me wrong by being directly opposite to everything I thought she might be from day one.
Although she was a couple of years younger than me, I haven't actually felt the age gap yet because of the lovely way she treats me. And God knows how surprisingly I got a lot more comfortable with her in just a week. Being the only girl in the family, both of us could relate to so many things and we bonded over all those small details like real sisters.
Handling her childishness became a habit more than routine as she always surprised me and I found myself growing more and more fond of her. Each and every day, I have been discovering more sides of her, and today, it's her ability to reach three damn octaves of high notes. Pulling the sheets over my head, I wiped my tear-stained face in a hurry before she notices, but I could hear the girl taking a seriously long deep breath and gearing up to hit the next level of her octave range with my innocent eardrums at stake.
"EEOONNNN..." Before she could do any more damage to my sensitive ears, I pounced over and clamped her mouth shut, as we both fell onto the mattress.
"YAH! Yah! Geumanjomhae! I'm up okay? I'm up already! And I'm wide awake!" She giggled like she usually does and began pulling the sheets away, exposing my one-piece Shinchan pyjamas.
"Then get out of the bed. Today is really important for your assignment, remember? Please don't let our whole week of preparations go in vain. ILEONASEYO, JI AH EONNIE!" She yelled at the top of her lungs again.
"Firstly, my name is G-I-A, GIA! And not Ji Ah, darling. Secondly, it is 6 freaking AM and my appointment is at 12 PM. So, I have five solid hours to sleep in before that."
I pulled the sheets back from her and curled myself in it as she hopped onto the bed and began bouncing. Although she didn't major in the same subject as I did, she still went to Howon. Among all 6 of us in the house, only Sorim and I majored in Performing Arts and Media but that didn't stop my ever so caring roommate from supporting me with my assignment here. She knew almost everything about my faculty and my assignment more than anyone. However, there was still one single thing that she was oblivious about.
It is my original motive of coming to South Korea and I don't really know when I'll be ready to tell her anything about my past yet. Well, since I, myself have no clear idea about it either, it is only a matter of time before I could discover something and acknowledge her eventually. Although seeking her help in the first place did occur to me, I pushed it aside considering the weight of that request could be for her. It was my task and I had to do it by myself. For now, the only thing I could expect her help with is my assigned thesis.
Being a K-Pop fan herself like Sorim, Jiwon was more than excited when I told her that Prof Lim, my lecturer in charge at Howon suggested K-Pop as the major genre of my thesis. However, both Sorim and Jiwon had refused to introduce any groups to me, whereas it was Sorim who offered to start with her own group in the first place.
"It won't be fair if your perspective is influenced by us from the beginning. Try to find out what you can first and then we will fill you in." That was what Miss Fangirl #1 (Sorim) said.
Whereas Miss Fangirl #2 (Jiwon) said, "K-Pop and K-Idols are something you should start feeling drawn towards by YOURSELF, eonnie. That is how you find your ULTIMATE STAN and eventually a bias. We come from a very just and peaceful fandom where we don't force people. So, let us know when you have learned enough about K-Pop and are ready to learn about each group separately, and OURS exclusively." They both even went so far and hid all their posters and albums and even merchandise from me.
"Firstly, I like to call you Ji Ah better because it sounds more Korean-like and personal. Secondly, It is good to be punctual...," her choice of words made me poke my head out of the bedsheet roll as I raised an eyebrow at her in belief.
Clearing her throat, she rearranged her sentence, "...I mean, it is good to be punctual and it is INDEED EVEN BETTER to be earlier than said time. Eonnie, didn't you say that Prof Lim was going to take you to someplace very important for your thesis? We can at least prepare beforehand if you would just stop being lazy!"
"Does that mean you're going to show me your posters?"
"Ani. We are going to revise briefly on what Sorim eonnie and I had taught you before."
"Oh, I remember all that well enough though." She crossed her arms, giving me a straight face.
"Let's see it then. What's the difference between Visual and Face of the Group?"
"That's a piece of pumpkin pie! They're the most good looking ones." She facepalmed herself as I simply rolled my eyes at her.
"ANIYO, EONNIE! Visual is the most good looking one. The Face of the Group is the one who represents the group in shows or events or is the most well-known one. I can't believe you got the most basic detail wrong.
NOW, GET UP!"
★★★
UNKNOWN POV:
It was another happening weekend with families on outings and couples on dates while I was out with my family as well. Well, not all of them but at least most of them were here. To stop my longing for that one missing person, I diverted my concentration to the surrounding. Eventually, I found myself admiring the children playing in the built-in play park of the cafe and I couldn't keep my eyes off them. They seemed really cheerful and also uncontrollable at the same time, just like the ones sitting with me.
Correction.
The ones SEATED with me a minute ago. I began to search around the cafe for the missing boys in a hurry because it was my duty to look after them and now they've gone off wandering alone again.
"Mwo-ya... Where did they go so fast?"
My eyes kept roaming around the place in search of them as I caught a glimpse of the person we were supposed to meet walking inside the cafe. And I began scanning the room even more desperately because I had to get the boys back to the table before the guests arrived but they were nowhere in sight. I even searched inside the play park, doubting if any of them were playing or even worse fighting with the kids, but they weren't there either.
"Annyeong haseyo. I see you're early as usual but didn't you say that your boys were coming along?"
"Ne... Annyeong haseyo, Prof. They did come along.... hmm... they were..." My eyes automatically began searching for the missing figures at the mention of them like a habit. The older man laughed as he grasped the whole situation. He had known us all for a very long time now and he was well aware of how troublesome they can be at times, or precisely, all the time.
"I see it is quite hard without Kkomae to control them. Anyways, this is my student I've told you about...", he gestured towards the girl whom I didn't notice earlier because she was sort of hiding behind the Professor's rather larger frame. She stepped out of his shadow and bowed politely as I slowly took in her appearance.
She was pretty tall, a little bit tanned, had long straight hair and was wearing a decent checkered miniskirt with a matching pair of red heels. She also had a smile that seemed both sweet and strained at the same time. However, her features seemed a lot more familiar from somewhere, and just when I thought of asking her about that, the boys finally decided to make an entrance with their usual loud banters.
"Hyung! Hyung! They're giving free ice creams for three Americanos. Can we get them, please?" One begged adorably.
"I want Latte, Latte!" One more demanded with a straight face.
"Aniyo, hyung... They only give ice cream for Americano. Not Latte." One more stated in frustration.
Before the last one could say anything I sent them a silent glare and like a habit, they stopped talking all at once. Slowly, their attention turned towards the girl and the professor standing before them.
"Yah... Greet! Greet!" I whispered loud enough for them to hear with my lips pressed into a polite smile. And they did as told in unison like the nice children they were, causing both the girl and the professor to chuckle.
"ANNYEONG HASEYO, PROFESSOR LIM!"
"Hahaha... Annyeong, annyeong boys. It's been a while. Here, meet Kang Gia, my exchange student from The States. And Gia, meet N, Leo, Ken, Hongbin and Hyuk. They are all really famous people here...", her gaze shifted onto each one of us animatedly when Prof Lim introduced us, "... They are K-Pop idol members of the boy group VIXX. And you shall be working with them in order to complete your thesis from now on."
The girl had almost the same reaction to everything the Professor said except for the last part. Her eyes obviously widened for that but she blinked away the expression almost immediately and turned towards us.
"Annyeong haseyo, I'm Kang Gia. I hope we could work well together." Her voice sounded a little strained and her posture was obviously nervous. So, I decided to take charge and start up the conversation to lighten the heaviness in the air.
"Annyeong haseyo, Gia-shi. We hope we could help you with your thesis well. You can call me Hakyeon and it is really nice to meet you." I was initially worried about how she might respond to my sociability but the girl greeted the hand I extended without hesitation and smiled genuinely.
"By the way, Hakyeon-ah where is Wonshik?" The mention of our missing rapper's name drew Gia's attention as she averted her gaze onto me, expecting an answer but Hongbin overtook me.
"He went to perform at the NBA Buzzer Beat Festival, Prof. He'll be back by tomorrow. Anyways, we're glad to meet you, Gia-shi and I hope that we could help you with your thesis too."
Hongbin flashed his infamous dimple smile at the girl as she simply smiled back with a polite nod, which quite surprised me. Hongbin's artwork handsomeness didn't affect Gia like it usually did to the opposite gender, and that ensured me of something. She could be genuine friends with my boys without the risk of growing any personal feelings for them and that is a really great point.
"NE!! NICE TO MEET YOU GIA-SHI! I AM VIXX'S CUTE MAIN VOCAL KEN! BUING BUING!" Jaehwan exclaimed like the happy virus he was as it caused Gia to laugh at last.
"Annyeong, Ken-shi! Nice to meet you too." She finally exclaimed back with just the same amount of enthusiasm.
"LET'S GO GET OUR COFFEES AND ICE CREAMS NOW!" Jaehwan cheered joyfully as he pulled Gia with the rest of the boys towards the counter.
Shortly after that, she was already having animated conversations with the boys while I discussed her thesis details with Professor Lim. She seemed a lot brighter and friendlier than before and I was glad that the boys liked her company because I was actually worried that, my boys might feel disturbed by her presence with hectic schedules coming ahead. However, they seemed more than happy to have her around.
We got to know a lot more interesting things about Gia as we begin talking over lunch and she was indeed a very fun person to hang out with. Hongbin had dropped formal speech with her in no time once he found out that they were coeval. Taekwoon was more than happy to speak caffeine with her. Jaehwan already made her address the three older ones as Oppa while Sanghyuk was calling her Noona too. Although I can't expect her to completely fill in for Kkomae, I still had a feeling that she could be a good help to me in keeping the boys in control at least.
★
GIA'S POV :
Nobody would believe it if I said that one week ago, I was this girl who barely talked to the opposite gender. Now, I was becoming BFF with not one but five boys at the same time, and that too within just a few hours of meeting. All of them were way more adorable than I expected them to be. Instead of being arrogant due to fame and all, they were really humble and down to earth. I grew close to them in no time that it even surprised my own self.
Well, almost everything that has been happening ever since I stepped foot in South Korea seemed like a habit. Becoming friends with Sorim, bonding with Jiwon and now getting to know these boys. Well, the oldest ones were 27 years old, so they were pretty much well grown-up men. However, their attitudes and characters were seriously childish which made them all even more outstanding, and I was very comfortable with them.
"I'm glad that you're comfortable with us, Gia-shi. There is still one more member whom you haven't met. It's Ravi and I hope that you can be comfortable with him too." His name rang a bell in my head, but not loud enough though. So, I simply smiled while nodding in agreement.
"Of course, I will Hakyeon oppa and I'm looking forward to meeting Ravi-shi as well."
And just like that, I hoped to bond with their Ravi like a habit too.
★★★★★★
| Title's Song ~ Out of Sorts (VIXX - CHAINED UP) |
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